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Help with CP design

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XyloSesame:

Thanks for your experience, severdhed. Your issues with Frankenpanel usability mimic my fears. Button interference and reach/depth of panel.

Trouble is, I'm looking forward to both spinner and trackball games.

After I've spent some time with the CP, I might just end up doing a revised panel like you and eliminate unused controls...

severdhed:

thats really all you can do.  build it, use it, revise it, repeat.  i am on my 5th panel right now, and I am finally pretty happy with the layout. I still have some craftsmanship issues i need to work out, but the spacing and feel of everything is pretty good.  I don't know if you are planning on a control panel overlay, but may i suggest building a test panel so see how everything feels, before you go to the expense of printing out an overlay only to find out you want to change something.  a heavy cardboard box, or cheap piece of wood or paneling makes a nice mock control panel to test spacing and layout.  i think that the next time i redo my panel, it will be to add artwork, not to move anythign around, but it took me 5 revisions to get to that point.  i'm glad i didnt print out overlays for all of them

RobotronNut:

a couple of things:

(1) my 8-ways are 22.5" apart, and i play a lot of robotron, and i love the spacing.

(2) if you care about 4-way games, don't lose the dedicated 4-way. you need the diamond-shaped restriction.

(3) the asteriods-type games work fine with your 2 hands separated, so the two 7-button "fighter groups" you have will be perfect for asteroids. will work much better than trying to use a joystick.

(4) specific joystick models can make a huge difference in your scores in some games. i'm sure you've seen the endless discussions here about joysticks. on a tight budget, the following work very well: 4-way - ultimarc J-stik, 8-way - happ super.


cthauber:

You have a very similar design to what I am in the process of building.
I went with the Ultra 360 sticks to have the analog ability (mainly for N64 games).  I can also then use the 4 central buttons as the N64 "C" buttons.

Within Mame, the 4 central buttons will be the same as P1 buttons 1-4, so I will have a nice layout for HyperSports, as well as a nice close button for spinner games.

The cutouts that are set about 4.5" from the edge are 2" wide, and the inner face is where a couple of flipper buttons will be located for pinball.
I figured the total width of 33" is just too wide for a comfortable pinball feel (most standard pinball machines are around 22" wide).

Anyways, I will hopefully be starting my cutting in the next few days.  Looking forward to getting it all done :)

Chris

Dire Radiant:

The slot idea for the pinball buttons really isn't doing it for me. Have you thought of a stepped design without the two bottom corner pieces?

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